The failure of the present crop of members of Imo House of
Assembly to question certain decisions
and actions of Imo Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha impacting negatively on the
state has led to renewed calls for an end to the era kid and ill equipped
legislators in the state. The generality
of persons making such calls are complaining about what one of them termed the
“the penchant of the government to
embark on non-professionally planned and executed projects gulping resources of
the state and at the end making no economic impact in the state”.
Leading the onslaught against the quality of representation
in the House of Assembly at the weekend,
a former Director General of Ken
Ojiri Campaign Organization, Sir Canice
Okorie, opined that Imo State can never
get things right again if voters in the state do not in 2019 ensure that ill equipped legislators are not
elected the Imo House of Assembly again,
no matter what the ruling party desires.
Sir Okorie particularly took a swipe at what he described as
the low representation that his own constuency in Orlu Zone in the state has
been receiving, urging the people of his constituency never to let such anomlies happen again.
Hear him: “For eight years in a row this constituency has
had misfortune to have mediocre after the other as occupants of her seat and
they have done nothing but to assist the financial strangulation and stagnation of a state led by Pharaoh of our
time who in conjunction with them led a bleeding IMO State to death in all
ramification and now needed men above the leaking
of any body's shoes irrespective the giant size of the executive”.
Putting the blame on electorate
who elect people without first considering quality, Sir Okorie stated: “The
elected occupants are not the problem but those who elected them are the major
problems and hope we don't make such mistakes again”, and then advised the
trend should seize as from 2019.
“Come this electoral season we
must as remedy to bad representation insist on candidates who are nearer to the
electorates who work and reside here in Orlu and whose accountability arising
from profile of positions help before including his / her accessibility of
people to them before now”.
“As they make themselves
available we will ex ray them one after the other”.
According to him, the state is at the mercy of legislators
who have simply refused to do their legislative and oversight functions, giving
the governor unfethered leave to drive the state they way he pleases, adding
that most worrisome has been the
penchant of the government to embark on
non-professionally projects gulping resources of the state and at the end
making no economic impact in the state”.
Form Owerri, the pastor of Redeemed Evangelical Assembly,
Rev. Sobe Akachi, urged people to stop blaming the state governor, Owelle
Rochas Okorocha, for failed or bogus projects in the state. According to him,
every visioner like Governor Rochas Okorocha would always want to prsecuite his
vision to the letter, and no one should blame him if he does so, adding however
that the managers and regulators of the socio- political system of the state
exist to stopping him from visions which will destroy the system.
Hear him: “Those who are blaming
our governor without blaming more the legislators of the state are being naïve.
This is because the House members should take responsibility for every thing
the governor has done wrong since they are established to check his excesses. What do you expect when the people you have
sent into the House owe their loyalty to the governor and not to their
constituencies and state”.
“Have you not heard that last
the Owerri Municipal State Constituency representative moved a motion on BIAFRA
to impress the Federal Government without any consultation with the people of
the constituency he represents”.
“ They do not understand that
they are representatives of their different constituencies and have to speak
the mind of their people no matter how otherwise the Governor or the President
feels. So why blame the executive arm of government when the legislature is governed by people who are
ill equipped and cannot seek and obtain
the consensus opinion of their constituencies on national issues. That
is our bane”.
On the way forward, Rev. Akachi
opined however that the biggest challenge is that knowledgeable and experiences
people are being forced to give way for young politicians who do not understand
what governance is and what people expect from Government as of right. According
to him, stomach politics has taken over, and what concerns today’s young
politicians is making money, and they do nothing else.
On the quality of representation
in Imo House, he said the present crop of legislators are cowed by the governor
and none of them has the required
intellectual capacity and courage
to speak against government, “ excepting
perhaps some legislators from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
legislators”. He added that security challenges in the state constitute
another reason why legislators cannot
oppose government executive decisions which are adversely affecting Imo people
today.
Speaking to UnionMail on the
same issue, a politician from Okigwe who prefers not to be quoted on account of
his ambition to contest the 2019 Imo House of Assembly elections said the
problem is not about kid representation, but that of money politics. According
him, a sitting governor would always want loyal legislators and so can always
sponsor young men who will never question government decisions on the floor of
the House, adding that it is the duty of the people to say No and elect matured
legislators irrespective of their party affiliation. He explained that voters
should vote persons and not parties “in the interest of the survival and future
of the state.
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